18 November, 2006

The brake that everyone is talking about is the Tektro R556. This is the first really high quality extra long reach sidepull brake; their reach is 55-73mm. It's perfect for those who like to run big tires, and also for converting 700c frames for 650b wheels. While they won't have the stopping power or modulation of top quality centerpulls or cantis, these are really well made brakes with a nice quick release and the extra power of dual pivots. At $59 per pair the price is great for a unique and high quality set of brakes.

Campagnolo has never made great brakes, but they make the very best, and most expensive, brake levers. So Tektro copied Campy's design to produce the high quality yet affordable R100A and R200A aero brake levers. They even have the push button quick release which is the best ever devised. The R200 are for people with smaller hands and the R100 are for those with larger. I find these have the most comfortable brake hoods; they are wide and really fit my hands.

We also have some French CLB sidepull brake sets. these have a reach of 46-60mm. They include the calipers for nutted mounting, classic style drilled non-aero levers, grey cables, and an extra set of pads. The finish is a sort of metallic grey. They are $78 per set.

You may know that I'm a big fan of center pull brakes. There is a post about them here. So we'll soon have Paul Racers as well as Paul Touring and Neo-Retro cantilever brakes, but that's another post.

We'll also have Kool Stop pads. Another thing I've always wanted is modern brake and derailleur cable in an assortment of colors, blue, red, green, yellow, metallic silver. Anyone else think that would be cool for dressing up bikes? I think we've found a source.

I'll get this stuff into the store in the next day or two. Are there any other brake related items you'd like to see us stock?

20 comments:

neil m berg
said...

Thanks. I just want to thank you for sharing all this information and all these great products. I'm sorry I can't buy them all. The best brakes I've ever had are Modolo Pros with Campy Cobalto levers, which may be the same as C-Record? They are as smooth as butter and will stop you dead without the grabbiness that most double pivots have. Not a great big tire, fender brake though.

Jagwire has housing in 25' lengths in Red, White, Blue, Black, Yellow, Silver and "XTR" Grey. I use the Silver exclusively on all of my bikes - I order it through QBP via my LBS. It's inexpensive, very well made and looks great.Chris, what additional colors are you able to source?

We can get all the colors of cable that NipponVelo mentioned, plus "stainless steel mesh" right now. I'm waiting for samples and lists to see what else is available; I'm hoping to find orange and green and brown. We can also get super light aluminum cable, but I'm not sure if it's durable enough to bother with. We plan to sell it by the foot -- most folks don't need 25'.

I can get pads for Mafacs, but Kool Stop pads are a lot better.

Andy, I'm not sure which guides you mean, the hangers or the little plastic things on the levers?

Orange, Brown and Green would be exactly the three colors I would like to have in addtion to Silver. Regarding 25', I manage to go through about 25' of brake housing a year - about 1/2 that in shifter housing.

I'd like to be able to purchase the brake cable stop for centerpulls that have a barrel adjuster and quick-release built into them; I don't think I'll be able to describe it adequately so I may have to snap a photo.

It would be super fantastico if you could discover or commission a batch of the Herse/Royal Gran Compe roller hangers. They may be technically unnecessary but they're sooo elegant.

I just thought of something else; for my next bike (which would be my first custom), I'd like to spec brazed-on Mafac centerpulls. I'm told that they require special braze-on posts--cantilever posts apparently won't cut it. Now I don't know whether frame builders would find it trivial to make their own, but if not it would be great if you could produce some.

Agree about the caliper bosses for centerpulls. I'm having a guy braze some onto my city bike/ beater. He's starting out with canti bosses I think and modding them to work with centerpulls. He didn't sound daunted by the task at all, and he's not charging much for it. If it works out, I'll send some pics when I get the bike back in a coupla weeks.

Olyfixie, Those Dia Compe/Gran Compe rollers come up on e-bay all the time; that's where I got two sets. We need to find a big wholesaler who imported Dia Compe back in the day. I wanted to have some Herse roller-hangers made this past Spring, but no one was interested. The Toei hangers cost $75 and ours would not be much cheaper.

A lot of custom builders are looking for Mafac caliper bosses... Good luck. If David can get some made I'll sell them. If I had a sample I'd look into having them made.

Kool Stop Stinger pads. These are great for smooth post style cantilevers/centerpulls because they allow you to change pads without having to deal with all the pad alignment issues. Basically they're a cartridge pad for smooth post brakes. Very nice.

Last time I counted, I think between my wife and I we had 14 or so... That said, I really only ride 2 or 3 of them and she mostly rides 1 - several are total junky beaters. I do all of our wrenching and am constantly tinkering on our bikes which often results in running new housing. I also constantly sell off bikes to buy and try new ones.

I don't get those roller hangers. I have them on one of my bikes and they make no difference ... after all, the carrier doesn't move on the cable when you actuate the brake! *rolls eyes* They're really just useless bike porn. If anything, it's often better to use the MTB kind that tighten into a particular spot on the cable, so that you don't get one side or the other rubbing on the rim.

thefastfifty, that's a good call. Especially when using Brooks saddles and such like a lot of folks here do, it would be *great* to have a seatpost available with tons of setback. I've never really understood why it's so danged hard to find seaposts of this ilk. My own position for years has been to have the saddle nose 3.5" aft of the BB spindle, and that's just a tad more than most seatposts are okay with, depending of course on the saddle used.